Asrock H87 Performance

Here we have another Fatal1ty themed motherboard in the Asrock H87 Performance which boasts a black PCB with black and red connectors. There are also some large black heatsinks designed to cool the H87 chip along with the power phase circuitry.

The H87 Performance still includes many of the features found on the Z87 Professional, such as Home Cloud, HDMI-In, XSplit as well as a hi-density power connector, 15u gold expansion slots, Intel LAN and Creative Audio.

However unlike the Z87 Professional the H87 Performance uses the H87 chipset rather than the Z87 and that means there are a few new features, such as Intel Small Business Advantage, Intel Anti-Theft Technology, and Intel Identity Protection Technology. Missing is Intel Extreme Tuning Support and official multi-GPU support.

Despite that the H87 Performance does support multiple GPU’s via its two PCIe x16 slots. That said SLI is not supported, leaving the multi-GPU support exclusively Crossfire. It is worth pointing out that while the primary PCIe x16 slot it wired for full x16 bandwidth, the second is only wired for x4 bandwidth.

Therefore if you plan on building a Crossfire system we suggest skipping over the H87 Performance as it is best suited for single GPU configurations

Where the H87 Performance should score points is in its audio solution, which Asrock calls the Purity Sound. Basically Purity Sound is a combination of several hardware and software audio solutions and technologies.

At its heart is the high-end Realtek ALC1150 audio codec, this 7.1 channel HD solution supports 115dB SNR DAC, and two TI NE5532 amplifiers, one is a Differential Amplifier and the other one is a Premium Headset Amplifier which supports up to 600ohm headphones. And there's also cap less Direct Drive technology, EMI shielding cover, PCB isolate shielding and support for DTS Connect.

Once again we find that the Gigabit LAN support is provided by the Intel I217V controller supporting Intel Remote Wake Technology, Wake-On-LAN, Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az and PXE. The storage capabilities of the H87 Performance have not been upgraded from what the H87 chipset offers, meaning there are just six on-board SATA 6Gb/s ports.

The USB 3.0 support is also fully dependent on the chipset, meaning there are just six ports, four on the I/O panel and another two via an onboard header. There are also four USB 2.0 ports on the I/O panel along with another four which are supported via onboard headers.

This leaves a single PS/2 port, VGA port, DVI port, two HDMI ports, LAN port, optical audio and five audio jacks on the I/O panel.